I teach genetics and do research in evolutionary microbiology at the University of British Columbia. This blog is about my teaching, and about other teaching-related ideas and issues.

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Alternatives to 'genotype' and 'phenotype'

I just posted the following tweet, but realized that it needed a bit more elaboration.

The meanings I want to capture are the following:'Genotype': the genetic differences between different people (or other organisms)

'Phenotype': the differences in traits/characteristics/properties between different people (or other organisms)

This is for a new blurb for Useful Genetics. Part 1 of Useful Genetics teaches how genotypes differ and how they cause phenotypic differences. Part 2 teaches how genotypic and phenotypic differences are inherited.

The terms need to stand alone - I'm not looking for analogies to incorporate into explanations of what 'genotype' and 'phenotype mean'.

For 'genotype' I could maybe say 'DNA differences' or 'gene differences', but I can't come up with any way to capture the real meaning of 'phenotype' in one or a few non-technical words. It needs to not exclude any of the ways that phenotypes differ (appearance/metabolism/behaviour/disease risk etc).

Ideally the words would apply comfortably to both people and other organisms, but it's most important that they apply to people.

This is interesting, and I'm wanting to learn more about both mainly for personal reasons. As far as using the term "trait", I believe most non-technical or non genetics users will know what trait means. Ultimately, there will still need to be a glossary but your proposed terms will be easier to memorize and associate, the meaning, to the term; as opposed to the term phenotype for instance.

I like characteristic differences a bit better than trait differences.

Found while searching for more information about your Useful Genetics course (through edX).

Thank you very much for your post, it makes us have more and more discs in our life, So kind for you, I also hope you will make more and more excellent post and let’s more and more talk, thank you very much, dear. friv 100 | Friv 10 | zoxy | agar.io

I was very impressed by this post, this site has always been pleasant news. Thank you very much for such an interesting post. Keep working, great job! In my free time, I like play game: redball4games.com. What about you?

Thanks for sharing such a nice article. It is really useful to me and all people. One think in my mind came while reading that it is not wasting of time. kizi4 the aim of the game is to get the block to fall into the square hole at the end of each stage. There are 33 stages to complete. Geometry Dash is a great place to play the best free online